U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., is being accused of upsetting the newfound atmosphere of civility in the House by likening a Republican talking point in the health care debate to the propaganda used by Nazi mouthpiece Joseph Goebbels.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., was accused of using overly inflammatory language on the House floor when he likened a Republican talking point to Nazi propaganda.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., is being accused of upsetting the newfound atmosphere of civility in the House by likening a Republican talking point in the health care debate to the propaganda used by Nazi mouthpiece Joseph Goebbels.

Cohen's speech to a nearly empty House chamber Tuesday night went viral Wednesday, and was posted on a variety of blogs and news websites. Network news programs broadcast excerpts on Wednesday; Cohen later appeared on CNN to defend his comments.

After a daylong debate Wednesday, the House voted to repeal the bill, 245-189, on Wednesday night.

Cohen began his remarks Tuesday night by saying the Republicans suggest the cost estimate made by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for the health care bill passed last year is nothing but an opinion. Cohen said they're mistaken; it's a fact.

"They don't like the truth, so they summarily dismiss it," he says. "They say it's a government takeover of health care — a big lie. Just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually people believe it. Like ‘blood libel,''' he said, pounding his fist on the dais.

"That's the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it and you had the Holocaust. You tell a lie over and over again. And we've heard it on this floor — ‘government takeover of health care.' "

"... There is no government takeover," he said.

Cohen's reference to "blood libel" follows former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's use of the term to describe attacks on her from left-leaning pundits after the Tucson massacre earlier this month.

In an interview with The Commercial Appeal on Wednesday, Cohen defended his reference to Goebbels, saying the German propaganda minister was "the most famous political liar of all time." He said he did not and would not call Republicans Nazis and denied he is contributing to incivility.

Among those who routinely refer to the health care bill as a government takeover is U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., whose congressional website currently displays a video from a Jan. 7 floor speech in which she said, "We in Tennessee have lived through the experiment of government-run health care, called TennCare. Tennessee couldn't afford it, and the American people know that this nation can't afford a TennCare-type program on a national level."

Blackburn said she plans to introduce the Healthcare Choice Act today. Her bill, she said, "will free the consumer to shop for a plan that best meets their needs," she said of the proposal.

Shelby County Republican Party chairman Lang Wiseman said people had been sending him comments on Cohen's remarks all day, some saying "there he goes again."

"I don't know what's worse — the fact he said it or that he tries to defend it. It's outlandish," Wiseman said. "In light of all the goings-on of the last couple of weeks, all the talk about civility, it just makes it doubly outlandish."

Tennessee Republican Party chairman Chris Devaney called for Cohen to apologize for his "reckless rhetoric."

Of the members of Congress from the Greater Memphis area, Blackburn, Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., and Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss., voted for repeal of the reform bill Wednesday evening. Cohen and U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., voted against it.

In a more restrained floor speech Wednesday, Cohen noted that former Tennessee senator and Republican majority leader Bill Frist endorsed the bill passed last year.